Bullet Journaling to Improve Your Life (Because Your Memory Sucks)

Your Biggest Enemy is an Uncontrolled Mind

Your thoughts are scattered. Your emotions run amok. Your memory? Unreliable at best. Enter – the Bullet Journal Method.

Bullet Journaling isn’t just a planner – it’s a mental command center that helps you track, process, and problem-solve.

And when everything seems to suck, it can help remind you that it really doesn’t – you just tend to forget the good stuff.

What Bullet Journaling Really Is (And Isn’t)

Contrary to popular belief, the Bullet Journal Method wasn’t meant to be a DIY planner system. It’s a tool for mindfulness, clarity, and reflection.

Also contrary – You don’t need any fancy layouts – Just a pen, notebook (analog is key!), and whatever elements work for you.

Some people even use two notebooks alongside each other – a portable pocket notebook for on the go, and a larger journal for deep dives.

Core BuJo Elements That Actually Improve Your Life

Basic system and symbols. Keep it functional – tasks, events, notes, & feelings.
Daily highlights and/or gratitude. Negativity bias is real (your brain overlooks the good to protect you from the bad) – combat it by tracking your wins, even small ones. (Bonus points if you turn your highlight log into relevant song or show titles!)
Habit trackers. When motivation wanes, proof of progress will encourage you to practice discipline & resilience.
Braindumps & freewriting. Mental decluttering = less stress and better focus (more on that next week!)
Goal reflections. Are you moving toward the life you want? (More on that in a couple weeks!)
Interstitial journaling. Practice mindfulness by taking a pause throughout your day to log your real-life moments in real time (who, what, where). Your future self will thank you.

There’s Always a Way to Deal With It : BuJo Problem Solving

Instead of freaking out, work through it using these prompts:

What’s bothering you? (Name it.)
Why is it bothering you? (Dig deeper.)
Do you have control over it?
1. Yes? Brainstorm real solutions, then create a mini action plan.
2. No? How can you reframe your perspective and reactions? Control what you can.

Get Your Mind Under Control

Bullet Journaling isn’t about being organized just for the hell of it – it’s about taking control of your thoughts, actions, and emotions. You can’t trust your brain to remember everything or to be rational in every moment.

Write it down. Track what matters. Improve your life.

Have a favorite bullet journaling hack? Drop it in the comments!

If you liked this post, please give it a “like”, share it with friends, and subscribe if you’re new.

And here’s a couple related things I’ve found interesting lately :

An article about reflections in your Bullet Journal

A video with a helpful explanation of daily logging / interstitial journaling

Rock on!

Where I’m At #4

Where I'm At

“Where I’m at” posts are just random updates about what’s going on in my life at any random time, based on the areas / roles in my life. Any particular goals I’m working on will be highlighted, so you can easily see what I’m actively working on improving (and see that I do try to practice what I preach). Leave a comment & give me ideas for things you’d like to see me write individual posts about!

Hi everyone! It’s been a rough month for my family – we all got COVID mid-November, & apparently we’re all still dealing with the aftermath. Yeah, seriously. My kids’ pediatrician told me I was probably misdiagnosed with a sinus infection because she said they’ve regularly seen some COVID symptoms lasting up to 15 weeks. So there’s that.

On a better note, our holidays were lovely, & I hope yours was as well!

Let’s get into how December went for me…

planner : I actually just switched up my Notion setup a little bit! My main dashboard is now a gallery view of the PARA method, with “Projects” being the equivalent of my planner. “Areas” are the equivalent of the roles you see here, with each area having a separate page & each relevant page having a section for tasks & notes. I like it a lot so far! Also, I’m really excited to move into a new journal! I’ve made an entire year fit into an A5 Stalogy for the second year in a row, & that poor notebook is about to explode!

self (body & mind, emotion & education) : I’ve really been struggling with my diet & exercise ever since I first got sick; that’s a real challenge for me – picking back up after illness. (Something for me to work on!) I’ve really been enjoying journaling & writing my blog posts; haven’t been terribly interested in reading any books lately (I keep trying to read Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Workweek because I like his writing style & some of his ideas, but I just can’t stay interested.) Emotionally, I’ve been pretty up & down because of being sick. Bleh.
marriage : We’ve been rediscovering old ways to have adventures, considering the weather. It’s been fun going “window shopping” & spontaneous restaurants for dinner!
mom (BooBoo & Bubby) : The girls have been great, despite having a very persistent cough. Their favorite Xmas gifts included some Magna Tiles, Miraculous Dolls, & Furblets lol
teacher (K & PK) : We’ve been taking it easy this month, to prep for & enjoy the holidays. We’ve worked through the curriculum a little bit when they felt like it, but most of this month’s education centered around the science of the changing seasons, measuring ingredients for homemade treats, playing games, & doing holiday worksheets.
zB : Had to move some things around because I was really struggling to maintain focus this month, & I wasn’t sure if I’d have enough posts ready for the month, but I somehow managed to pull everything together & I’m excited to share those with you!!!
homemaker (finance, cleaning, travel) : I don’t even wanna talk about the finances this month LOL – I just keep telling myself “tis the season!” I’ve gotten a lot more cleaning done with us not focusing so much on school, so that’s good. And I’ve been trying to plan some interesting adventures for these cold & snowy months – We’ll see what happens!
witch – Nothing going on here; I really should try to find some time to at least meditate more regularly, though I do a little bit every night.
reseller – Absolutely nothing going on here, besides a couple of sales. I’m still very much in limbo about how I want to go about my whole resale business right now & in the future. It’s just not a priority.

Currently

eating – Lots of soup!

drinking – Hot lime water 😋

watching – Beast Games, Xmas movies, Lincoln Lawyer, & finished Royal Pains just in time for it to leave Netflix!

reading – Blog posts

playing – “Beat the Parents “ & “Would You Rather?” (card games from the Dollar Tree that I got the kids hehe)

buying – All kinds of stuff we don’t need, just cuz it’s discounted post-holiday (we really need to put the brakes on! LOL)

listening to – Rain!

celebrating – My youngest is turning 4! 🥳

pinning – self care, journaling, homeschool stuff, & Green Day lol

planning – Kiddo’s bday, goals

feeling – Excited for a new year!

How was your December, & what are you looking forward to in January? Let me know in the comments below!!

And if you’d like, feel free to use this free desktop background I made on Canva for whatever you’d like (I was just screwing around while I was sick, hehe) 😘

See you next week!!

On Productivity and Useful Apps

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While I continue to recover from that dirty ol swish, I’d like to take a moment to discuss productivity. Different things work for different people, so I’ll share what works for me, hoping that it might give you an idea of something that’ll help you.

I wasn’t really taught how to organize anything as a kid, especially my time, but I always craved some sort of structure outside of school. So, I started reading books about it as a kid, & I’ve gotten pretty good at it over the years! This article is mostly about my business, but covers my personal time as well. Please note- I’m not getting paid to mention the following apps, I just find them that useful!

My most useful tool isn’t an app at all, & it will have its own post in the future. I highlighted my business notebook in a previous post, and mentioned that it works better for my business needs than a “bullet journal“; but I’ve been using bullet journals for my personal needs for 3-4 years now! I use it to keep track of monthly events & appointments, plan my dinners for the week, track my bills & checking account, maintain daily to do lists & habits, and more! I even made a separate bullet journal for my recipes. So, visit the website and keep an eye out on my blog here to get an idea of how this system might work for you!

I used to use a very visually pleasing notepad app on my Nook, but something happened & they discontinued the app, suggesting that users try either Google docs or Evernote as a replacement. I opted to transfer my old notes to Evernote, & have been using it ever since. Evernote is almost as awesome as the old app, just not as visually impressive as the old app, as far as organizing notes goes. There are some restrictions with the free service (which is what I use), but it’s still super useful. You can save almost any type of media (including personal notes), organize everything by tags & categories, and access everything either through their app or their website. I use it for my business to maintain checklists, bookmark things from the web, & organize ideas.

To keep myself moving, I use a method commonly known as “time blocking” – setting aside specific times to do specific things, & nothing else. Kind of like making appointments to do certain things. I’m a little lenient with these blocks, however, in that I tend to set periods of time to do things (such as doing housework or creating products for the shop, for an hour straight), but I use a stopwatch to monitor myself. If something comes up while I’m doing something, I stop the clock.

Breaks are important so that you don’t burn yourself out, physically and/or mentally. So, between tasks, I tend to play a couple games on my tablet or do some yoga & meditation for set periods of time, depending on how long I’d kept myself busy.

I also use a time-tracking app called Jiffy. With Jiffy, you can either use it as a stopwatch or log your activities after. With the free version, you can create 3 categories, which can be divided into “work” & “non-work”; you can also add notes to each entry. Jiffy takes the information you entered & creates graphs, so you have a more visual representation of how you’ve spent your time.

Just DO it!

The hardest part of doing anything is getting started; but if you just get started, momentum will eventually get you where you want to be. Make time for whatever is important to you, and just DO it, if even for only 5 minutes! Stay as organized as possible, reevaluate when you feel stuck, and take worthwhile breaks once in a while. You’ll thank yourself.

What productivity apps and/or techniques do you use?? Let’s chat in the comments below! 😄

And don’t forget to check out my shop at zen BLITZ 💚🕉💜